CREATIVE CRIBS - Tom Fuller (Tom Walker, Kelly Rowland, Patrick Wolf)

spitfyre audio is based in tired studios the home to about 80 recording studios now I often refer to is that it's almost like a bit of a a music mine where you've got different kind of shifts coming in so you have your your media composers working during the day and then gathering for a wine with an H in the in the cafe stroke bard about six o'clock when you've got your track makers your beat makers in your top line is coming in to do their shifts but what's been great about this community is to make friends with people not only in the media music business but the other side of the tracks making tracks and this guy is a serious talent Tom fuller is going to show us around and talk about the subtle differences between making tracks and making music for media I remember when I first looked at studios in entire yard I remember coming in here and going this looks like a spaceship so good it is them with it she look at your booth come in look at the booth so this is a shared booth yeah it's a Shepherd that she with the guys next door yeah they have been in for a while actually but some but yeah it's it's kind of a nice little communal space that we have fantastic what a lovely wonderful looking piano and obviously this is a big part of what you do vocals yes lots of vocals so lots of sound baffling I'm trying to get it sounding good yeah nice nice polka mics cheap one expensive one so this is an m14 nine yeah just em it's a great all-rounder isn't it that it's good yeah on male and female quite well it's good yeah it's a little bright sometimes but it's really nice mic I think yeah it's kind of wood like a we need to get 67 soon don't we that's probably what needs like I bet you do don't you know I borrowed one of they dropped it got massive dink in it so I had to take it it's not only do I have a 67 nine and want it's got massive dinky let's work this now I'll buy it from you now these are interesting I find these incredibly noisy yes you can buy a clever little thing called a cloud lifted which is over here actually has a good image you can plug into and then it provides lots of clean gain so it makes it a lot less noisy and then use it with a nice clean pre but yeah it's great this sounds great on loads of decent vocals I always have it up and this is a kind of a rough for reflections basically yeah yes stop the reflections behind what my dad actually built these he did a great job actually so yeah my father and I see some back line is this predominantly fur for reamping yeah and for guitars and whatever keys as well yeah so this is this one's in my rehab chain at the moment actually so I can fire drums and vocals through its and a nice little Audio Technica ribbon mic on that actually at the moment yeah now I'm going to pretend not to know the answer to this but why don't you simply use amp simulators in sound very good Christian why is that I don't know I've no idea cracked it I know it's weird also I think there's something about air moving and there's also I mean I say that I'm a hypocrite because one of my answers actually has no speaker it's going through a simulator like the Palmer one okay so that sounds really good as well so I don't know why it must be something to do with electricity but also there's spring reverb zin these things as well so it's quite easy to escape and Bill spring so yeah nobody gives it right let's have a look at the spaceship yeah don't in it's quite small but perfectly forms and gorgeous well I was I like I like a man who likes a bit of taxidermy in the house so I've got an old 1950s mink and an old Fox in my my studio I was thinking about getting rid of the Moche but no I can't bring myself to do it they were a gift actually so much problem it because that I reckon there's a higher concentration of vegans in the music in I know that problematic so is this the amp thing that you were talking about no that's another round that's the 19 I think that's a 1961 so I'm a true voice that's amazing it's like I think it's two watts so you find that I was at a guitar auction in Bath that one it's very good so I put drums through that sound very good I also got the audio kitchen on a on a loop actually which is nice and I've got this old when's his 1963 when West Westminster athena's which is got a great valve tram on there as well actually that's my main playing guitar when I'm writing and how you find those some Tronics mics great oh my god they're fantastic so Trevor Trevor brought that down and it just stayed I'm not gonna get a few more but yeah I think it's an like I used the Apollo for a drama heads as well actually I can squeeze drums in the pan be Paolo say it's great yeah it's very good so I often get the sense when I walk into a studio and see a lot of outboard of whether it gets used or not and I get the sense that you use your outboard are you a fan yeah I am a fan yes I try and use it for fun things I don't like outboard it doesn't do anything but you know kind of pouring compresses that you can't really hear and not my vibe I need to really hear it's otherwise it's money wasted really isn't it she probably use a plug-in so right I've only got things that really make a difference yeah so you know Dynamite's and things that make drums sound like they're exploding they're pretty old they sound amazing on kick and snare they just sent me make drums just really explode and then the tg1 is just a classic studio staple I've never never used it you need to use it Christian I use it on well great on drums they mean tradition you'd use them on room mics so but it depends if you're not doing any kind of live drums you could use them on I use them on like electronic parallel drums actually so you can use on piano sounds great on piano yes I'll have to try that try it in limit mode basically from in limits much yeah I can't modes just a bit kind of you know okay a bit more - smashes it yeah but it's kind of very it's very kind of easygoing though you don't have to use it so the needles moving too much but then it sounds great if it is as well so it depends what you want it also release gotta be quick okay okay thanks for the tip now these Marg and I'm they're new to me I've just got a pair of these really impressed with is it yeah yeah so I use mine on drums actually so do you know Chen's a Townsend I do he's a really good mixer so he put me on today's I think and he so he use them I think he's mister I'm not I don't know you bet and then I am actually post post of instant on Instagram when I was talking about the SOB band because the sub is it's really quite brutal a she's amazing and and I said to him it's it's quite a lot and he said yeah I've been getting into trouble with mastering engineers it's like copy careful with that I don't want to break any speakers and but ya know they're amazing on drums actually and also the air band is amazing on cymbals and bio knees on drums on it any music through it any kind of like keys or yes it's just for a little bit of finishing really and also just losing a little bit like the kind of cloudy low mids on that as well the culture vulture is an extraordinary piece of KISS isn't it yes yeah my bulbs gone I was very upset actually like the green bulb yeah I know I'm lamenting but so yeah it's it's great I use it for mainly bass sometimes I tracked straight into it because it's got a fun little input on it yes to make kind of bass audible yeah it's - I mean it just it adds upper harmonics so you can just it makes stuff contour and small speaker but also it's just you know it's a good break up actually I tend to use it in the mode I think no one likes the mode I use it anything was it p1 I think if I uses it in T don't they yeah I think for triode right and I don't yeah I don't know I like I like that one I like P is the you know making stuff of small speakers and even more important thing these days because I see I'm gonna sound an old fart here but I do see a lot of young people listening to music other speakers of their phone yeah I mean the phone is a good a good speaker to check on because you know they're I think they're they're tuned to voices aren't they so there's lots of like there's like a 1k or 1.5 k'boosh maybe I don't know maybe some 4k going on so you can you can work out where your vocals sitting in a mix actually in your snare so it's important yeah I mean if you can hear a bass on a phone then you're doing very well aren't you see great I think yeah things like the coach about you really help with that I'm delighted to see a fellow dimension D I know I've got that actually on / Malone from John Kelly at the moment let's talk I hope it doesn't see this video stereo Iser basically yeah yeah that's why I only use I use it the mono input way which I know is I don't know if that's cool or not I don't know most people using stereo I think but I do one in and two out yes actually which is annoying as I use it as a Pro Tools insert so I have one channel of da going nowhere just into the ether just like a music drops your oh it's annoying isn't it you know you've got to make them count so um yeah so it's great I put like Gino's through it because the Jean like the chorus on my Gino is noisy like very very noisy right I use this instead it's great on BVS as well strings of all of them to sound a bit weird also um also yeah reverb returns so so sometimes I take the PCM AC and just Chuck that over that oh how interesting yeah it's pretty fun actually for doing something simply by that great effect right I love something you just can't tinker with it's just it's a good chorus they've worked out what sounds good and I don't know what buttons to use I keep asking people what is variation there are combinations I know it's got four settings but so yeah I just every now and again I just change it and see if I can hear the difference usually now I don't know I know number four is better supposedly I don't know what more audible yeah should we move around here so I've got the ms-20 G used the filters in that as well as this yeah yes I use it all the time for bass and then I run things through it so it's actually I've got it set up on an aux on my board so I can fire anything I'm hearing to it which is quite fun so I use it a lot for drums the filters are amazing obviously but also you can can use the electronic signal processor you can control the CV from you know it derives CV from the input signal which is quite good so you can kind of do some fun kind of you with with the Tom hits and things quite fun oh great that's very good and then also I've got the date for which I can plug into it if I can be bothered which is quite fun drum brute yes there's another arteria number it's good actually this is kind of fun that's true there's 20 oh I'm gonna start using my ms-20 so what are you playing with the ms-20 so I'm just sending halt and stopping over here basically just off an aux just sending through the filter let's go like I just do I've lost it now I've lost it I broke it [Music] [Music] you patch into the signal in okay and then you come out of there and then go into here into where it says external signal in but then if you want to use and you this is like pre these filters here though so if you wanna then take the CB that it's generated you can then trigger the oscillators by going into these up here Wow but I mean if you just want access the filters you can actually just go straight into there you don't need to go by here yeah pretty good so yeah it's great actually that's really good so it's kind of like a a modular vibe actually because they will like individual little modules out there and you know I don't know it's quite good I've been using quite a lot of things and it's got the step things it's got some fun kind of I'm never gonna use that you're a fan of the dunno yeah it's great yeah it's percent I bought I see it's been a nice old oh that's no MIDI know MIDI no use a lot of syncing from other things they so I can sync the ARP and I can sync the LFO everything is all connected to say and this little this little bad boy is hooked up to Pro Tools say it's yeah this is I think it's got it's not unplug them in but it's got a digital telephone so I can calm that interview well yeah and this very much looks like a kind of a functional thing for songwriting yeah just MIDI controller you know this is where all my spitfire gets played from I Spit old-school compressors for tracking vocals this is a kind of an industry standard for vocals is it yeah both of them really I mean sometimes you use one into the other you can use the because the l80 way if it gets a big peak it can the recovery times quite slow so you can actually use the the URI on before it in a chain because then you can catch the peaks then stop the l80 way hitting is hard right so you could use it on my 8 to 1 or 12 to 1 but carefully you know fantastic chain and do you use the ad converter on this I do yeah I do why you actually use it to print my mixes through as I've seen because it's gone in set point so you can pat you can just use I used to the priests for like piano and then I can just patch my mix into it but I've got some other converters as well so I can i've actually got this is really boring but i've got i've got it tweaked to have more Headroom so i've got two sets of converters and if I want to print my mix hotter or like drive things harder I can then use that on the way in and and knocks I think 60 bees or 40 bees off the top so okay just means I can crank the mix bus harder so what is your preferred mic pre I love this heritage audio up here actually it's like a copy of a Neve it sounds I wasn't real world actually we had a bunch of vintage names up and this was the only one that sounded remotely similar the EQ is great and these VP twenty eighths here as well of really Goods they're like classic api's and the trimpots of the bottom are actually small faders they're not just attenuators there's lots of op amps and the sounds good really good - they're just some like really good api's and the car set ones are fun as well they've got like little solid-state pol tech key keys on well so we've got to know that's mania this is amazing actually this is a really crunchy crunchy compressor and distortion box it's amazing actually just brings vocals right to the front famously uses I think my keys know this little one here it's called a level or it's like I think it's a copy of the old level look you know have used devil log not in the box it's a soundToys buggy and I think it's like a hardware version of that effectively but it sounds great I think it was used for like Matt Bellamy's vocal amuse that kind of vibes it's like very like but really it's pretty good yeah fun things thing and what's the thing in there in the spring reverb oh that very good leap up they're actually quite rare those I think now it's a clark technic one so it doesn't look very cool but it sounds amazing and i have the left channel slightly brighter than the right and then kind of does a little bit of that going on say another can modulate it with a dim D if any great gets it's great on like since Gino's and things that sometimes on vocals and I've got others I'd love to bring me those I've got this one as well which is phenomenal this I don't if I can is it can ask yes my brother Joe has oh yeah right I mean it's I just have it going love to hear it well normally what I get is the the noise of the mood light the backlight going in in it so when i did when i dim the light some crazy crazy probably running a simple something than just hard planning it and i've got so that's actually on an aux as well so i can do that on the way in so i can take any sin that at the same time and I've got this actually which is i'd want these before but it broke so i've just got this new one but it's not been converted oh it's not had a UK plug on it yet so unfortunately it's not in yet but it's an old valve spring reverb which isn't amazing for vocals it's actually stereo but if you go it doesn't have a wet only out so if you go in the left side and then come out the right side you can get a kind of DIY where only which is quite good for vocals some that's gonna be my main mono vocal reverb which will be mainly with mono reverb my main vocal mono mono reverb yeah right save why spring sounds amazing I don't know sounds great for mono you know I've got other reverb side but for mono it's that's why ease otherwise I use this awful zoom 1202 which is like probably the worst reverb ever made but also it sounds amazing on snare drums and vocals as a mono yeah sometimes yeah yeah usually is mono actually that the snare sometimes will use stereo but but that's the stare at some mono in stereo out as well that so and then I use loads of these as well like effects pedals and I've got a spring reverb in the effects chain over here as well actually which I use all the time is amazing score soulmate which is really good so that's in a reaction as well so I can fire stuff out through that she has pretty good that she but its premiere so just amazing on most things cuz you know and like putting synths through amps especially soft sense is a way to just remove all the top and on the bottom ends and just go slot it in a mix you know you're not fighting leaky yeah a lot of these the problems I have with a lot of soft senses the amount of bandwidth the operators yeah whole the whole lot yeah well you know the panning so if you like put it through an amp instantly you've monitored it so okay now you can pan it somewhere and secondly you've taken all the top on the mahkumat so well a lot of the bottom off but you can you can eat here with a 560 or something and you just wait you know you can instantly see where it's going and you can slot it in yeah and then if you want to make it stereo you just either slam a dim D on it or you planet send it to a reverb and pan that the other side and then suddenly it's like okay I get it now you know rather than like you know where's it live and then I've got another one where does that live you know yeah and you fall in love with the grandiosity of it I know and it's it's a dangerous game because then you get to the end of your mix and you just got it full of big things and then something nothing sounds big and it's just annoying you know and it's so yeah I don't know it's good to make things small and and then make try and make them bigger afters I think is a good ethos oh yeah and this is amazing I've got to tell you about this this is a nineteen I think it's nineteen fifties tape delay it's just like it's got a valve just for the meter look at that Oh a magic eye meter sounds good can you hear that pairing no it's very good very good anyway yeah that's um that's very good take today and I've got my copycat trusted copycat down here which is wet only this is amazing I've never heard one sound as good as this so um yeah that's on my that won't of my cheney basing well no no I actually bought that from an assistant who used to work for a very huge mixer and the day after I bought it he called me in off to buy it back for twice the price and I said no Hollywood he used it I heard how could it's not my used to own two other ones actually in this one sounds better so because these these things are kind of cottage industry aren't they so they all know yeah their own characteristics yeah and on vocals I mean that's my main vocal delay if I'm doing anything that's kind of sloppy right it's that and you just time it manually yeah I mean I get it roughly in the right place and then I'd move it around in Pro Tools yeah because you're not you know it's not it's not TWiki is it really is what it is and it does what it does so and then this and this is great as well it's a bit more tweakable that although this wasn't till very recently it didn't it wasn't wet only actually I found I was opening up giving it a clean over the weekends and I found a little pot inside I thought well what does that do and I tweaked it and then suddenly it's wet only I didn't even know so I'm very happy about that Christian excellent I know got the graphic on the headphone mix that's how old-school I am so if they complain about if they start singing fat this is a good tip Christian if you doing vocals and if you notice if they sing flat they've got too much bass in the headphone so I use that and knock it off and usually they just come back in team because of the way the brain perceives bass right it changes your internal pitch so this is your work position which is in the corner and which is unusual for me because there's media composers we like sit in the center of the big old screen blocking our tweeters basically coming up through big studios I think everyone's always off because obviously the computer is always off to the side of the desk right so historically where the computer went was where the tape off was yes yes I'm a tape up in my own room yes I find it quite comfortable to be here and I've got my little stereo which I do a lot of work on and I kind of what that yes my little it's a pure of a very good a lot of mixers use it it's very good really yeah it's really good for like leveling snares and vocals and also getting bases to kind of come through on small speakers it's like the holy grail of decent mixers so yeah it's really good for that yeah it's great cuz I can work here then if I need to check it doesn't sound I can just kind of come to the middle of check on the other monitors and then come back and you have two different kind of near-field so you've got the focus and yeah and the amp Ian's I'm loving these something's actually there but they're quite new to me I think they've been around a few years now they're really good the very very HiFi transparent I originally got me to replace Alice tens because I kept blowing the tweeters and the companies you can't crank loads if you're working with a band than working with an artist you really want to crank all you like you've got a Moog plugged in the movies like the shore Fyre way to blow any speaker across the room oh really oh my god yeah just hit and I've got I've got like a an EQ across my mixbus filtering it like 40 s because it's who solid grabs something and I'm not looking drivers start firing across the room so it's quite quite a lot so yeah I've got be careful with the amp khun's but the focus can take it so they're here for turning up I saw on your Instagram account thing you've recently done a rewire oh yes is it a new sister more it's a new workflow I think okay I realize always been too slow I create sounds and like kind of mix as I go but I realized that none of my mixes were recordable because I was just doing monitor mixes effectively than giving the mixers to other people but then I was getting my rough mixes used a lot and then the labels would be calling me asking for stems and asking for revisions and I just you know it was a job to try and get a mix back that effectively was just one end of day mix from broad mix yeah yeah well like from two months ago I can't remember what the hell had done and they had a vibe and actually a lot of sales motion but quite recently just messaged me and it was just like quite frustrated actually because we had this mix and it was amazing and it had gone off to LA and it had been mixed by you know big big mixer honcho yeah and it they were just like it sounds the drums I'm better we like certain things and your make better obviously the vocals it's had some time on it so there's some good good things in the new mix but you know just trying to get those things back and it just might mix it won't record Abani aren't you frustrated I'm like yes I'm frustrated okay frustrated so I was like right ripping the whole room out I was obviously been planning it for probably probably a year but I just haven't had a week to just do it and I thought it was gonna take three days and it's exam day it's no sweetie no did did you do it yourself or yes I did yeah and a guy called Brendan Cox helped me know he's a lovely man and he's spent a long time yeah a lot of time on his back runs of the desk with me plugging things in it doesn't look like there's much wiring in here but as there you can kind of do that around the wiring as a trunk that runs wrong so yeah it's a lot you don't want to see under that I've hidden it because I know you're coming yeah it's a lot and but it's good so basically what it lets me do is it splits the room into kind of two halves so the ball is just kind of inputs actually so you can kind of grab anything and like play and it's always coming in onto the board and even before Pro Tools so I can always hear stuff without arming tracks okay which is great because you know if you've been an artist in the room you know you get something is this on yes no yeah I was before was like oh no I needs our matrac and you know yeah so now it's good for creativity I do did you find that when it was a bit of a hassle you'd sometimes be if you're working on the pressure sometimes less inclined to use the outboard oh all the time yeah like which is a pity is it not because yeah what is is what I think creates something unique potentially yeah I mean I mean how boards like it's cool it's like a bit boring if you're like if you're talking about mixing I guess it's cool it makes that sound good that's its job right yes I like using it half the stuff haven't plugged in for a year because you know I'd have to patch it and I've been able so many channels and I was returning on the board so now I'm summing in the Box effectively I've got my mix buss on the board actually but but yeah that out boards all on hardware inserts though so for mixing although I've done a clever thing where I can my first eight hardware inserts come up on the patch Bay so I can like the URI and the the l80 way I can actually patch into those for tracking as well so okay so say your way to recorded the drum machine through the area I just go boom and then suddenly it's on the way in pulled out the harbour insert chain young the cords and something it's back in whatever it was going on okay so it's quite good for that yeah it's great if you've got other people in the room as well so you know because otherwise you'll just realize they're relying on you it's that here doing this rather than go I just want to do that and then yeah you know so you're in Pro Tools yep and do you program in Pro Tools yes I have to yeah I can't go to the logic and come back too much I've got time so I'm using MIDI or you just mainly programming audio so what I do is I mainly yeah and normally just play everything and capture if I use MIDI I'll probably not me I'll use MIDI for like controlling filters like I've got the the bisqui over here which I use all the time and I've actually got I've got them I've got the the controllers the controls coming out to a separate controller at least I can sit here and put mark about it okay so I'll use MIDI for things like that a lot the since don't have MIDI the Gino doesn't have MIDI in here so you're you're physically playing most of the stuff in and then then aligning to grid and all of that kind of stuff yeah and then if I want to program something with MIDI then I'll use this is my main controller or the digital piano behind you and then like funding some more casual stuff obviously if good you've got it because you need to be tweaking notes and stuff right say yes I'll do that if I have to yeah I do drum programming I tend to use I'll use like an 808 so I'll programmer or I'll just play it live say because I'm all about the Greve actually say right I don't like things too meaty gridded unless I want it to sound completely on the grid like it's some kind of you know always some swing or something like an MPC star thing I'm committing all the time part of the harbor insert thing is as soon as I'm happy with something I just commit that insert now which is amazing for me my workflow has changed drastically really yeah because now before I was I couldn't save anything you know now I get sound I like it the mix is pretty good if I think they're gonna go for it like highlight those tracks commit just as one real time pass and then all of that stuff stored in the in the session and I can effectively yank my laptop and go away with it and this is another massive thing I'm now on a laptop as well so I'm completely false but one cable goes in and lights the whole studio up and then at the end of the day I unplug that cable take it away and it's exactly how it was oh so that so that is actually your computer yeah yeah the whole CDO is running from a brand new MacBook and one cable into it I was adamant on one cable coming because before it was storm of stuff going on and it goes through this big box of Iona lives under there and there's all sorts going on to it but yeah it's effectively one cable and if I print the commits the hardware inserts I can just leave the room and it will sound exactly the same and I can put the stems wherever I am so it's big deal for me but us Media Composer is sitting on this side of the fence we are under the possible illusion that there's no money in your side of the business of the moment but you've clearly made a profession out of it yeah I mean it's hard it's hard I think there's less money for sure I mean you know I think there's people doing incredibly well I think there's people doing less well I think there's it's always hard I think I think it's hard for anyone in any industry when you're not at the top of it I think you know we the same in in composing as well there's budgets just aren't what they were right I think this is just the kind of take away from this I think but part of me changing my workflow is I want to be a just give mixes to other people and and now I want to try and keep that in-house you know I get to retain the control over it and also you know effectively I get to build for that - it's you've got to be more cutthroat with your kind of workflow in your approach otherwise I think you know you're gonna go under I think that's just genuine genuine you how it is this is why it's important to write this one you know PRS is a big deal you know now I think obviously that's if your composer that's huge yes so you know it's but it's a big deal to me too and it's a big deal to a lot of you know people who are producers are also writers and yes just having a finger in many pies you know you do library stuff do you sing stuff do you know do collaborations with other people in other industries and I think you can kind of also keep it interesting right is the same thing all the time so have you done much library work yeah a little bit yeah yeah it's good I enjoy you've been professional now for I don't know no I'm getting old no you're not I think maybe so if you could say one thing to you you the the producer writer composer that is you now could say something to you 12 years ago what would that be eat let's take aways be more healthy drink less yeah I think is good advice I always say that you are the CEO of the business that is you yeah and it's therefore important that it's scalable and sustainable yeah hugely oh my god I mean yeah hugely I think do you think getting out is important or are you a bit of a troglodyte I mean yeah getting out is really important I started swimming every day I think I told you this already and I it's changed my my life I've liked it started losing weight I was getting you know you come into the studio every day and it feels like a bit of a prison and you know you're eating badly and you know drinking and then you're not getting any exercise so I decided that I needed to 12 o'clock every day I go down and I swim 70 lengths and then I come back and as long as I'm not working with someone new or someone who can't you know is no it has no flexibility at all then I will do that sometimes the ice I'm working with the artist I'm like I'm gonna come with me and say okay you know it's quite fun actually that's a good icebreaker I know right it's getting to it's team it's really European is it I like it Tom listen thanks so much for your time yeah brilliant excellence they're coming

Channel: Christian Henson Music

Views: 52,281

Keywords: spitfire audio, christian henson, behind the scenes, orchestral programming, media composition, media composing, media composer, orchestral samples, orchestral sampling, behind the scenes in recording studios, recording studios, music programming, music programming techniques

Id: 5vIwKeGMaUQ

Length: 30min 33sec (1833 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 26 2020